The atmosphere at this company leaves much to be desired. I had initially thought that this would be a good place for me to build positive business relationships and further my career. I was very, very wrong.
Like others, I consider communication to be key to short and long-term success, especially in a business with so few employees. Here, communication was actively discouraged. I was in shock when I was assigned to work on a project and needed to collaborate with another employee and was threatened with termination if I continued to disrupt the office.
Often, employees were assigned to tasks that overlapped or were entirely redundant. Because of the lack of communication, many hours were wasted solving with more than one person working on the same thing, but without the ability to team up and cut costs down for the company. I made the mistake of bringing this problem up when I was nearly written up for attempting to help a new hire with a question. Simply put, the lack of communication and active stance against it put a damper on productivity.
There is a real "good ol' boy" network at work here. The original team has their own clique that is so tight no one else can even communicate with them. Disparaging remarks are often made to and about other employees by the veterans here, but management is so close with them that employees feel as though they have no one to turn to in order to improve their working environment. There is very little support for employees here. Newer employees are fired or forced out when the workload declines.
I spent nearly two years here and warn my friends about it when they consider applying.
